IRVING, Texas -- Jerry Jones said the Dallas Cowboys will take a "conservative" approach to the decision on whether defensive end DeMarcus Ware plays Sunday against the Philadelphia Eagles.
Ware, who left last week's win against the Washington Redskins with a strained quadriceps, has not practiced this week but refuses to rule himself out of Sunday's game. He intends to travel with the Cowboys and make a game-day decision on his status, although he is officially listed as doubtful on the team's injury report.
"Nothing about him physically would surprise me," Jones said Friday on KRLD-FM. "We hope that if we are conservative -- and he'd be the first to tell you if this were the Super Bowl, he'd be playing in it unquestionably, or if this were frankly a key game at the end of the year -- but he and we want to look at the bigger picture, which is the season. So we probably are being and will be conservative there.
"But nothing surprises me. He's Superman."
Ware has never missed a game in his career, playing in 134 consecutive games plus playoffs since being selected in the first round of the 2005 draft. In 2009, he had one of the best performances of his career six days after being taken off the field on a stretcher with a neck injury, recording two sacks and forced fumbles in the Cowboys' road upset of the previously undefeated New Orleans Saints.
Ware said Thursday that his ability to perform and the risk of aggravating the injury will be equal factors in the decision of whether he plays against the Eagles, who are tied with the Cowboys atop the NFC East at 3-3. Ware isn't concerned about extending his consecutive games played streak.
"The bigger picture is always more important," he said. "You don't want to be remembered as just a number. You want to be remembered as a guy who gets out there and wreaks havoc on the field. If I can do that, I will."
Running back DeMarco Murray, who sprained the medial collateral ligament in his left knee last week, also is listed as doubtful for Sunday.